Solutions to common Book Posting Problems

If you are having difficulty posting a book, first check that you are entering the ISBN correctly on the Post Books page (under My Account). The ISBN is 10 or 13 digits, and can be found on an inside front page of the book (across from the title page), or the back of the book, or sometimes on the spine of the book.

leave off the "13" or the "10" at the beginning of the ISBN.
Do not enter the hyphens (the system will remove them automatically for you if you do).
Just enter the last 10 digits of the 10-digit ISBN, or the last 13 digits of the 13-digit ISBN.
Sometimes the last "digit" of an ISBN is an "x". That "x" should be entered.

If you are entering the correct ISBN, and a listing comes up that does not match your book (or no listing comes up), read below for solutions. It is NOT okay to post your book using a listing on which the information doesn't describe your book properly. Author, ISBN (if there is one), title and booktype must all match. Book cover image, publication date, etc.do not need to match. Posting your book correctly is a cardinal rule at PBS.

The reason that the listing in the database must match your book is that this is the ONLY information that a requestor has about your book when he or she requests it.

If your book does not match the book requested, she or he may be disappointed, and may mark your book "received with a problem (wrong book)", and ask you for the credit back.

Solutions to Common Book Posting Problems:

Problem: You enter an ISBN on the Post Books page, click the Check button, and nothing happens.

Explanation: First check to see if you are using the Firefox browser with the extension "NoScript". If you are, read this: NoScript and PaperBackSwap. If you are NOT running Firefox with NoScript, then check that you are entering the ISBN correctly (see above).

If you are entering the ISBN correctly, then this means that the ISBN isn't recognized by the database.

Posted

Solution: You will need to post this book with a customized listing for the book, using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page.

Problem: You enter the ISBN on your paperback and the book Listing Preview says "hardcover".

Explanation: This means one of two things:

1. Your book is an ARC

If your book is a paperback, and the ISBN brings up a Book Listing Preview that says "hardcover", please check your book to be sure it is not an ARC. If it is an ARC, it cannot be posted for swapping at PBS.

Solution: You can offer this book to others in the Book Bazaar Discussion Forum, but you cannot post it to your PBS bookshelf.

2. The publisher chose to assign the same ISBN to more than one version of this title.

Publishers sometimes choose to assign the same ISBN to multiple versions of a book. However, PBS can attach only ONE booktype to the listing for an ISBN. If your book does not have the booktype assigned to the ISBN in the PBS database, you will need to post it with a customized listing, using the Post a Book Without an ISBN link on the Post Books page, so that the booktype matches your book.

Solution: You will need to post this book with a customized listing for the book, using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page.

Problem: The book cover image doesn't match on the book Listing Preview:

Explanation: Sometimes the publisher reprints with a different cover. The book cover image does not need to match, as long as the title/author are the same.

1. If the title/author on the book cover are correct, but it is a different picture:

The book cover image does not need to match. As long as it is for some version of that book (same title/author), it is okay.

Solution: Post the book using the listing that matches ISBN, title, author and booktype.

2. If the book cover image shown is just wrong (totally different book = wrong title/author):

Solution: Upload the correct book cover image (a digital photo you have taken or an image taken from another website), by scrolling to the bottom of any page on the site and clicking "Member Tools" then choosing "Upload Book Cover." The submitted image will need to be approved by one of our Image Collection Volunteers before it is added to the database.

Problem: you enter the ISBN on your book, and the listing that comes up does NOT say Large Print, but your book IS Large Print.

Explanation: This usually means that the publisher assigned the same ISBN to (at least) two different versions of the book. At PBS, because each ISBN can be attached to only ONE version of a book, if you have the "other " version you need to enter it as if it does not have an ISBN.

Solution: Post this book with a customized listing for the book, using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page, so that the Large Print status of your book is clear.

To make the book's Large Print status clear, you should
- Put "(Large Print)" after the title in the title field on the Post a Book Without an ISBN page
- Check the box for "Large Print" on that page

Problem: Title on the Listing Preview includes the words "Large Print" and your book is regular-font (NOT Large Print):

Solution: Post this book with a customized listing for the book, using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page, so that your book is not listed as Large Print if it is not Large Print.

Problem: The Listing Preview has a "warning" pink box on it that says that the book is "Large Print" and your book is regular-font (NOT Large Print):

Explanation: This means that this is a Large Print listing - and usually the explanation is that the publisher assigned the same ISBN to (at least) two different versions of the book. At PBS, because each ISBN can be attached to only ONE version of a book, if you have the "other" version (= a version that does not match the ISBN listing) you need to enter it as if it does not have an ISBN.

The pink box says:

"This book is listed in the database as Large Print (16-point font size). If your book is NOT Large Print, you cannot use this listing to post your book. If your book is NOT Large Print, Click here for more information."

Problem: You believe that the listing is incorrect - that the listing should be changed to "Large Print" to match your Large Print book OR your book is not Large Print and the listing should be changed to remove the Large Print designation.

Explanation: A database error is only one of the possibilities in this situation. If you want to pursue this possibility, see the Solution below.

Solution: You can submit a correction to the Data Correction volunteers using the Edit Book Data link in the "More Options" menu on the Book Details page. After you have done that, if the change can be made it will be made (this can take a variable amount of time), and after the change is made you can use the listing to post your book. In other words, you must not use the listing until it matches the book you have. If you don't want to wait for the correction to be made (it may be rejected if it is not a database error), you can post your book using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page to create a non-ISBN listing that matches the book you have.

Problem: There is an error (typo/misspelling) in title or author on the Listing Preview:

Explanation: The PBS database is compiled elsewhere, and it does have some inaccuracies.

Solution: Upload correct information to our editing volunteers if it is a minor discrepancy (missing author first name, misspelling).

To do this:
- Click "More Options" to the right of the book cover image on the Book Details page and choose Edit Book Data from the dropdown menu (you can also access Edit Book Data from the Member Tools page, which is linked from the bottom of any page on the site).
- Enter the ISBN, click Next->, confirm that this is the book listing you want to edit
- Correct the information there, leaving any correct information in place.
- Then click Submit.
- Your submission will be reviewed by our editing volunteers; there may be a few days' delay before the corrections appear in the database.

Problem: the ISBN brings up a Listing Preview showing a totally different book than the one you have:

Explanation: This happens when publishers assign ISBNs to more than one title.

On PBS, only one book listing can be attached to each ISBN. The one you are seeing on the listing preview is the one attached to that ISBN at PBS.

Solution: You will need to post this book with a customized listing for the book, using the Post Books without an ISBN link on the Post Books page.

Problem: posting an ISBN puts the book onto your Bookshelf twice!

Explanation: This happens when there is a server hiccup, or when the posting member clicked "Post book" or "Refresh" while the book-posting was in process.

Solution if the extra listing appears on your bookshelf: delete the extra copy from your account Bookshelf.

Solution if the book was on a WIsh List and is now involved a pending Wish List hold: Wait for the book to be requested. Accept the first request, and decline any extra requests by clicking "I cannot mail". Doing this will remove the extra copies from your account. You will have a chance to explain what happened to the requestor when you decline a request.

Problem: entering the ISBN brings up the message "This booktype cannot be posted on PaperBackSwap."

Explanation: Our database does not allow this ISBN to be used because our database provider has an excluded booktype attached - for example, 'unbound' . The database provider does sometimes get erroneous information from the publishers. Until that information is corrected, the ISBN can't be used here.

Solution: Until the database is corrected (this will happen automatically in time - but it could take a long time) this item will need to be posted as a non-ISBN item, using the "Post a Book Without an ISBN" link on the Post Books page.

Help Center - Solutions to common Book Posting Problems